Summa contra gentiles

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The Summa contra Gentiles (ScG) (" Summa against the Gentiles"), also known under the subtitle On the Truth of the Catholic Faith (Liber de veritate catholicae fidei contra errores infidelium) , is one of the main works of the scholastic philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas , which originated around 1260.

The ScG is a handbook for Catholic missionaries who lived among Muslims or Jews . Thomas was inspired by the Spanish Dominican Raimundo de Peñafort , who worked as a missionary in Spain and North Africa. Because the ScG is primarily aimed at ( Aristotelian ) educated people, it argues - in contrast to many other missionary and apologetic works of the time - largely on a philosophical level.

The ScG is an extensive work with about 300,000 words, which consists of four volumes, each divided into about a hundred chapters. The first book is about God and his nature, insofar as the human mind can grasp it without divine revelation or special grace . The second book deals with the creation of the world and its essence. The third book shows how rational creatures can find their happiness in God and live according to ethical principles. The fourth book explains central elements of the Christian faith such as the Trinity , the Incarnation of God , the sacraments and the resurrection .

To this day, the ScG is the only work of scholasticism that has been translated into Hebrew: In order to promote the conversion of Jews to Christianity, Pope Urban VIII commissioned Bishop Giuseppe Ciampes, who came from the Dominican order, to do this in 1640. In 1657 Ciampes' edition of three of the four books with Latin-Hebrew parallel text appeared in Rome.

literature

  • Thomas von Aquin (author), Karl Albert (author), Karl Allgaier (author), Paulus Engelhardt (author): Summa contra gentiles , Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft (2001), ISBN 3-534-15638-2

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Anthony Kenny : Thomas von Aquin , Freiburg 1999, p. 21
  2. ↑ Cf. Anthony Kenny : Thomas von Aquin , Freiburg 1999, pp. 21-29
  3. ↑ cf. Yossef Schwarz: Kabbalah and Conversion: Caramuel and Ciantes on Kabbalah as a Means for the Conversion of the Jews , in: Daniele Sabaiano, Paolo C. Pissavino (ed.): Un'altra modernità. Juan Caramuel Lobkowitz (1606–1682): enciclopedia e probabilismo, Pisa 2012, pp. 175–87